An ecstatic reunion in the heart of West Africa

The Aspinall Foundation is a charity that promotes wildlife conservation and reintroduces captive gorillas back into the wild in West Africa. Five years ago, conservationist Damian Aspinall released a gorilla, Kwibi, into the jungles of Gabon. Aspinall returned recently to reunite with a now ten-year-old Kwibi.

In this remarkable video, perhaps no greater heart-love has ever been demonstrated or recorded between non-human and human. When a ten-year-old full-grown gorilla in the wild is located and re-united with the man who raised him in captivity for his first five years, the tacit display of affection between these former intimates is deep and undeniable.

No one who witnesses the love and respect expressed by this great black African native can doubt that all who inhabit the Earth are one at heart. The gorilla’s embrace of his human friend as his dearest companion leaves little doubt as to how much humans have in common with our non-human friends. Protecting and embracing the non-humans we share the planet with is vital to our humanity and survival as a species.

The lesson is clear: we are each obliged to embrace and treat every living thing with the same affection and profound respect that this non-human and human express in this most tender, vulnerable meeting. Viewing this film opens the heart to the still place of unthreatened and conscious existence where all beings long to abide. . . -the Blue OK

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